It is easier to look back at your life and see that first link in a very long chain of events. At the time, of course, it could be nothing more than a phone call. Maybe a person whom you haven’t spoken to in years, someone you never wanted to speak to again. However, the desperation in their voice, the total breakdown into barely comprehensible sobbing sucks you in. That gets me every time. You could be the meanest, foulest harpy in all of history, but begin to well up, and I am putty.
“He’s dead, Derrick, and I don’t know what to do.” My sister has never been anything but a nasty, stuck-up piece of work. She’s the primary reason that drove me out of my family home and into the cold, lonely world. Here and now, I had the chance to add fuel to her emotional fire. I was preparing to do just that when I heard two crying children in the background.
“Did you call 911?” At the time, I wasn’t sure if I was the first person called while a corpse lay in a drying pool of blood and she chatted with her long-lost brother. “Who’s making all that racket?”
There was a considerable amount of silence and then a long sigh. “I shouldn’t have called.” More awkwardness, and then, “Derrick?”
“I’m still here. Do you need me to come home?” I have noticed as I’ve aged that I can be a real idiot one second and then a perfect gentleman the next.
It was her turn to not speak, but I’m pretty sure I heard her choking back another fit of tears.
“Can you?” was all she could get out.
“You might not know it, but my life hasn’t amounted to much since I left. Hopefully, we can pick up where we left off, what, three years ago?” I really wanted to make her happy and do what I thought she wanted me to do. Pleasing family, that’s important, right?
“I can clean out your old room for you.” My sister seemed to want to make this work too. “When do you think you can get here?”
“I’ll have to check flights, but I’m sure I can be there tomorrow.” I knew that was the only answer she wanted to hear, so I gave it.
“Do you think you can move back permanently?” She was pushing it, but that was to be expected, par for the course. “I mean I can help you find a job here and an apartment if you don’t want to move back home with me and the kids.”
“Kids?” I whistled. “Are they the ones making all that noise?”
“Yes, but it’s not like that all the time, honest.” When my sister added the word honest, I knew it was probably only quiet for about an hour a day, and even that was split into four fifteen-minute periods. “The kids won’t be a problem. They’re little.”
“They must be since I didn’t know about them. How many? Two, or did you pop out a bunch at once?”
For the first time, my sister laughed. “Just two.”
“To be clear, it was your husband that died, correct?” I met him once and thought he was okay. I had no idea my sister’s marriage would end by death, but he’s better off, I guess.
“Yes. His funeral was today.” She began crying again. “It’s been so hard for the last couple of months.”
“How old are the kids?” I wanted to change the subject to something more cheery, and usually people talking about their kids often does the trick.
“The youngest is two months, and the oldest is two. I know you’ll love them.” She wanted this to work, and so did I.
“I better get going so I can get there as soon as possible. I’ll call you back when I finalize the plans, okay?” I was happy for the first time in a really long time.
“Derrick, I’m so sorry for whatever happened when Mom and Dad died. I’ve changed a bit, not much, but I will do whatever it takes to make your stay a good one.”
Little did she know then that was the last time I hated her, even when she deserved it.
Months had passed before I got bored sitting around the house playing peekaboo and watching daytime television. My sister had been helping me on the job front, but I was picky about what I really wanted to do. Solid skills on the technical side didn’t help balance those sorely lacking on the social. I knew the happy, smiley people tended to make more and advance faster. However, I’ve never been able to fake that kind of energy. Give me a job to do, it’ll get done, and you can do the smiling.
“I think I found something for you,” my sister announced as she bolted into the house and made a beeline path to the kids. She gave them kisses, hugs, and sat on the floor, playing with them. “Can you DTP?”
“Desktop publishing? Like layout work on the computer?” I sat near the rest of them and watched in amazement at how simple things made them all so content.
“I think so.” My sister shrugged and continued watching the kids. “Interested?”
“Sure. How did you hear about the job?” I wanted my sister to focus on me, but that wasn’t about to happen so soon after being reunited with the kids.
“I had lunch with a friend who’s getting a promotion within the company, so her position will be open. She told me all about the job and the company, but I can’t remember everything.” She looked at me and could tell I had more questions. “I’ve got her business card if you want to call. The job won’t be posted unless you tell her you don’t want it.”
“Really?” I looked at the card my sister pulled from her blazer pocket. “Aren’t they going to give someone there an opportunity to take it?”
My sister laughed and then saw I was serious. “It’s an entry-level position. You won’t be stealing anyone’s job. Does this bother you?”
“Is this how most people get a job? Knowing someone?” I was more curious than furious, but my sister couldn’t always read me.
“Sometimes it is who you know rather than what you know. In this case, it’s simply a matter of perfect timing. It’s an interview, not a job. You might get there and find it’s not a good fit.” The younger one was getting fussy, so my sister picked her up and then stood up.
I read the card and flipped it over a few times as I was thinking. “Cedar Manor. Sounds like an old folks’ home. Wait, are they a legal firm?”
“No.” My sister was trying hard to remember what they were as she rocked back and forth, cooing at her daughter. “She told me, but I forgot. A bunch of letters, an acronym, but I can’t remember.”
“AMC?” I asked, reading from the card.
“Yeah, that sounds right. Some kind of management company.” She looked at me like I was being foolish. “It’s just a job. What’s it matter?”
“What about the kids? Who’s going to watch them?”
My sister stepped close and kissed my cheek.
“I’m worrying too much again, aren’t I?”
She nodded slowly and then left to change a diaper.
I looked at the older kid, who was holding out a block to me. “You get me, don’t you?”